Herkgen
Herkgen was a United Earth Republican Agriculture World. The colony was the seventeenth to be settled, and the most remote at the time of its founding. It was founded in 2104 by the UES Skylark. Located in the Torus System, the planet had the unfortunate distinction of being the first human planet discovered and destroyed by the Universal Generation. After a single Universal Generation Battlegroup was warped off course into the Organic realm in 2147, the planet was subsequently Invaded and Orbital Bombarded by the Universal Generation during the First Battle of Herakgen, but most of its population managed to escape in freighters. ''History 'Colonization' Herkgen was founded in 2104 when the UES Skylark arrived transporting colonists, then dismantled to form the core of Urania. The seventeenth colony world founded by the United Earth Republic, as well as one of the furthest and most isolated, the population was still small when Sergeant Thomas Rim engaged in his first mission on the planet. By the time he returned in 2147, the population of Urania alone had doubled. 'The Herkgen Outbreak' In 2124, Thomas Rim was involved in the assassination of Andrew Ronson, the head of the People's Occupation Government on Herakgen as part of the ORE Project's Operation: RECRUIT. Herkgen was the first colony to be attacked by the Universal Generation and the first human world to be Orbital Bombarded and massacred. It was also the first place humanity officially made contact with the Universal Generation, and how the Universal Generation became anti Organic. In 2144, Staff Sergeant Rim returned to Herakgen along with Staff Sergeant Brian and Captain Ronia, all survivors of Operation: BUTCHER They were to train a Colonial Militia and, unbeknownst to them, fend off what UER had believed to be Rebellion attacks on ships in the systems. On February 3, 2147, the Harvest orbital platform, the Arkor, made long-range radar and spectroscopic contact with Rapid Conversion. Contact in which both the Platform and Herkgen was lost thereafter. 'The Galactic War' 'Invasion and Evacuation' The citizens of Herkgen soon found themselves in the middle of the first battle between the Universal Generation and Humanity, using their newly trained Militia to herd hundreds of thousands of civilian survivors from Millow Hill, Vingelarken and other locations to the Urania Space elevators to escape the planet. During the first Universal Generation attack on Herkgen about 250,000+ humans managed to escape the planet by packing into 236 freight containers which were then loaded into seven elevator depots in Urania. Every five to seven minutes, seven pairs of freight containers were loaded into the Space elevator. Loaded ahead of these freight containers were seven "grease buckets", maintenance containers, two which were loaded with Rim's men and Jilan al-Cygni. The other five were decoys rigged with claymore mines which were used to soften the Universal Generation, Grunts and Drones had boarded and taken control of Arkor, several hours before Entering the Planet. While the other two "grease buckets" holding Rim and Co. stopped and they were fighting off the Universal Generation, the number seven strand of the Space elevator snapped a few thousand kilometers above its anchor due to the stress caused by the load becoming unbalanced. There were 11 pairs of freight containers on the strand when it snapped, killing around 40,000 people. The remaining freight containers carrying the survivors of Herakgen continued up the elevator, out into space, where they met up with propulsion pods that Sif had placed previously. Once Rim and Co. finished fighting the Universal Generation on the ruins of what used to be Arkor Station and joined the survivors and used the propulsion pods to enter Hyperspace' The discovery of Humans on Herkgen was the catalyst for the attempted Universal Generation genocide of the Human race, due to many of the Universal Generation supreme Kaisers thinking of Humanity as nothing more than weak minded Organics. 'Contact Lost' By April 12, 2147, the Colonial Armed Federation sent the scout ship CAF Amanda to investigate. Other than confirming its arrival at Torus no other transmissions were sent, and the Amanda was presumed MIA. On October 7, 2147, the CAF assembled Battlegroup 4 to investigate, due to the fact that the Herkgen situation was deemed to have become serious. The battle group consisted of the destroyer CAF Armcora, commanded by Captain Sanbrota, as well as the frigates CAF Arabia and CAF Blackhole. They entered the Herkgen system only to find the planet's surface almost entirely melted down to glass. While there, the battle group encountered an unnamed Universal Generation Destroyer. This vessel immediately fired on the inferior human vessels, and the Blackhole and Arabia were lost with all hands. The Armcora managed to jump into Hyperspace in order to escape the system, but took several weeks to return to Hokus VII due to damage sustained in the battle. 'Retaliation' Upon hearing Sanbrota's report and realizing the scale of the threat, the United Earth Republic was placed on full alert and a fleet was assembled to meet the threat. Vice Admiral Press Cartman fought and barely won the Second Battle of Herkgen in 2148. The United Earth Republic was able to retake the planet but with the loss of 2/3 of their fleet, even when they had outnumbered the single Universal Generation ship in Herkgen's orbit. 'Herkgen Theater' Herkgen would continue to be contested in the following years before the Second Era of the Galactic War, as not long after, the Universal Generation attacked again. The battle for control of the planet lasted for five years until 2153, when Admiral Cartman led a group of ships, including the URS Incora into the system and neutralized the Universal Generation force. They later discovered that the Universal Generation had established a presence on the planet's surface, and more shockingly, had uncovered a large portion of Universal Generation androids terminating and Massacring soldiers, after they had retaken the Planet. After driving the Universal Generation from Herkgen and avenging the deaths of hundreds of soldiers The Incora quickly made haste to Azar, and later an unidentified Planet, where they were able to stop a major Universal Generation plot. 'Post War' It is unknown if the United Earth Republic still maintained control of Herkgen with the war's conclusion in 2289, but Herkgen likely lost whatever strategic value it held during the conflict by this point in time. However, as glassed worlds like Hokus VII were later re-terraformed, it is possible Herkgen was restored to a habitable state. Hokus VII was however only partially glassed and its environment hadn't changed as much as Herkgen had. Defenses The first line of defense was the Herkgen Colonial Militia. There were 72 men apart of the militia. The militia was officially endorsed by the United Earth Republic and as such, were trained by members of the United Earth Republic. As well, prior to the fall of Herkgen, UER members were on the planet, targeting Rebels. Known UER members on the planet were; Staff Sergeant Thomas Rim, Staff Sergeant Byrne, and Captain Alonia. As well there was also one known police force on the planet, the Urania Constabulary. They had many roles in law enforcement in Utgard, including guard Governor Niles Lunar's office ''Trivia'' Category:Organic Planets Category:United Earth Republic Category:Deep Space Planets Category:Universal Locations Category:Regions of the Galactic War